Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Turns 100: Her Story, Her Impact
Quick summary: Justice Ruby Kless Sondock (J.D. ’62), a University of Houston Law Center alumna, celebrates her 100th birthday. She became the first woman to serve on the Texas Supreme Court in a regular session and helped reshape the legal profession for generations.
Justice Sondock did not go to law school to break barriers. She wanted security.
A Houston native, Sondock enrolled at the UH Law Center in the late 1950s planning to be a legal secretary. For her, it was a sensible backup plan. If something happened to her husband, Sondock said she wanted to be able to support her family.
Instead, the 1962 UHLC graduate became the first woman appointed full-time to the Texas Supreme Court, along with being the first woman named to a district-level judgeship in Harris County.
“You just do the best job you can, wherever you are, and things just happen,” she said in an earlier UH Law interview. “I’m a perfect example of how things happen because I cannot explain it.”
Sondock passed the Texas bar exam on her first attempt before graduating, which was allowed at that time. The day after, a classmate urged her to meet with Fred Parks, “one of the best-known lawyers in town at that time.”
Though she still had a year of law school remaining, Parks offered her a job. When she declined fixed schedules of 40, 30 and then 20 hours a week, he made an offer she couldn’t refuse: Sondock could set her own hours as long as she made a visible contribution at the office.
“You have no idea how amazing it was in those days because women that I knew couldn’t even get a job––couldn’t even get an interview––let alone a job,” she shared during a previous interview with UH Law.
After graduating at the top of her class (one of only five women there), Sondock remained at Parks’ firm and argued cases before the Texas Supreme Court in her first year of practice. She credits UHLC and instructors Dean Newell Blakely and Professor Dwight Olds for preparing her to do the work.
“I know that I have one of the finest educations in the country because I had those professors,” she said. “They were just so outstanding.”
Her move to the bench was also a surprise to her. In 1973, Gov. Preston Smith appointed her to the Harris County Domestic Relations Court No. 5, making her the first woman to be appointed to a district-level judgeship. Four years later, she was named the first judge of the newly created 234th District Court.
Sondock’s path changed again in 1982 with a phone call. During a break in jury deliberations, she learned that she was being considered to fill a vacancy on the Texas Supreme Court. On June 25, 1982, Sondock became the first woman to serve in a regular session of that court.
At her swearing in ceremony, Sondock thanked the “incredible strangers” who “exhibited support for and confidence in [her] to a degree that’s difficult to believe.
She chose not to seek election to a full term and later declined another nomination, returning instead to the 234th District Court and continuing her legal career as a private mediator until her retirement.
A unique legal mind, Sondock has received numerous awards and accolades over the years. In 2015, the litigation section of the State Bar of Texas named her a “Texas Legal Legend.” In 2019, the Houston Bar Association established the Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Award, which is presented to a woman lawyer or judge for exceptional achievement and leadership in the law. In 2025, Sondock received the Outstanding 50 Year Lawyer Award from the Texas Bar Foundation.
Her legacy is also reflected at UHLC, which established the Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Lectureship in Legal Ethics program to bring outstanding jurists to campus every year for a day of interaction with students, faculty and Houston’s legal community.
Now at 100, Sondock stands as an inspiration to future generations.
“You just do the best job you can, wherever you are, and things just happen,” she reflected previously. “I’m a perfect example of how things happen because I cannot explain it.”
A legal education, she told UH Law, “made all the difference in this world.”
Here’s a slideshow commemorating her 100th birthday.
Here’s a video interview with Justice Sondock from the Law Center’s 75th Anniversary celebration.
